Religion , During 1996 religious groups were pitted against governments on issues ranging from freedom of belief and practice to public policy matters such as abortion. In some cases faith groups found themselves in disagreement with one another on such subjects as evangelism and the significance of the Holocaust. Christians found themselves debating some core beliefs, including the identity of Jesus and the existence of hell. (For figures on adherents of all religions by continent and on adherents in the U.S., see below.)

Leaders of more than 40 Christian organizations met in Washington, D.C., in January to draw attention to the plight of persecuted Christians and to urge the U.S. Congress to take up their cause. They reported that in places such as China, Vietnam, Cuba, the Middle East, and northern Africa, Christians faced arrest, torture, imprisonment, and extrajudicial executions for practicing their faith. The House of Representatives and Senate adopted resolutions deploring such persecution in September, with the Senate calling for "a thorough examination of all United States policies that affect persecuted Christians" and for the appointment of a special presidential adviser on religious persecution.

Two of the high-profile cases that involved persecution of Christians during the year were the abduction and murder of seven Trappist monks in Algeria by terrorists who called themselves the Armed Islamic Group and the conviction of Robert Hussein Qambar, a Muslim convert to Christianity, on a charge of apostasy by an Islamic court in Kuwait in May. Hussein left the country in August rather than face an appeals hearing in September.

France in 1996 had 172 groups classified as religious sects, according to a report released by the nation’s Parliament in June. The government subsequently organized a watchdog group to recommend police investigations of the sects whenever it found them warranted. The parliaments of Belgium and Switzerland launched similar investigations. In Germany the ruling Christian Democratic Union (CDU) called for a ban on members of the Church of Scientology working in government jobs and asked for a government investigation of the group in October. Such a ban had already been initiated by the state of Bavaria. The youth branch of the CDU urged a boycott of the film Mission: Impossible because its star and director, Tom Cruise, was a Scientologist. While German officials called the church a threat to democracy, leaders of the church said Germany was using fascist tactics against it.

Roman Catholic Archbishop Norberto Rivera Carrera drew fire from Mexican officials in October when he said that if the government "openly denies fundamental human rights, then one has to deny it obedience." It was unclear to what he was referring, but Armando López Campa, director of religious affairs at the Interior Secretariat, said the remarks may have violated a legal ban on using pulpits to preach against the laws of the country.

On the first day of the year, the Israeli Supreme Court disbanded government religious councils in Jerusalem and the town of Kiryat Tivon because they excluded Reform and Conservative Jews; the court also ordered a Conservative and a Reform representative appointed to the religious council in Haifa. In July a Reform leader accused Sephardic Chief Rabbi Eliahu Bakshi-Doron of sanctioning the murder of Reform Jews; in a radio broadcast the rabbi said the biblical figure Phinehas had committed a "pure act" when he killed another Jew for having an intimate relationship with a Gentile woman. During the broadcast the rabbi described the victim as "the first Reform Jew."

In Sweden the government took the first steps to distance itself from the state Lutheran church by revoking the law requiring that children born to at least one Lutheran parent automatically become members of the church. After 2000 the church rather than the state would appoint its own bishops.

During Russia’s presidential campaign all the major candidates, including Communist Gennady Zyuganov, actively sought support from the Orthodox Church. Zyuganov visited monasteries and dropped atheism from his party’s platform. Ultranationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky declared himself a believer and renewed his marriage vows in a widely publicized church ceremony. Pres. Boris Yeltsin appeared as often as possible in public with Patriarch Aleksey II, who all but officially endorsed his reelection. Although only about 10% of Russians attended services regularly, opinion polls found that they rated the Orthodox Church as the institution they most respected.

In the United States, Pres. Bill Clinton was denounced by leaders of several religious groups for his veto of a bill banning a late-term abortion procedure. Top leaders of the U.S. Roman Catholic Church said the veto was "beyond comprehension for those who hold human life sacred," and leaders of Clinton’s own denomination, the Southern Baptist Convention, urged him to repent and "express publicly your personal regret" for the veto. On the other side, 36 religious leaders in the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice said they supported the president’s action. Where religious people had differences on such matters, they said, "the government must not legislate, and thus impose, one religious view on all our citizens."

The Southern Baptist Convention unleashed a firestorm by adopting a resolution at its annual meeting in June in New Orleans calling for increased efforts to bear witness to Jewish people and appointing a new home missionary seeking to evangelize Jews in the U.S. The action was widely denounced as insensitive by mainstream Jewish organizations.

Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel in July described the presence of crosses at the site of the Nazi Birkenau concentration camp in Poland as an "insult" and a "blasphemy" and urged their removal, thereby drawing criticism from Poland’s Roman Catholic bishops. The Polish church’s Commission for Dialogue with Judaism said the cross was regarded by Jews as a "sign of fear and hatred," while Poles considered it a symbol of "liberation from occupying powers."

The National Institute for Healthcare Research and the John Templeton Foundation of Philadelphia awarded grants to 11 medical schools to help teach future physicians to consider the spiritual as well as physical condition of patients. And the National Institutes of Health financed a $28,797 study at the University of New Mexico on the effect of prayer on alcoholics and drug abusers. In a book titled Timeless Healing: The Power and Biology of Belief, Herbert Benson, president of the Mind/Body Medical Institute of Boston’s Deaconess Hospital, wrote that "our genetic blueprint has made believing in an Infinite Absolute part of our nature."

Other research focused on the success of church attendance and religious-based programs on preventing or reducing crime and substance abuse. A study by Harvard University economist Richard Freeman found regular church attendance to be a better predictor than family structure or income of the likelihood that urban youth would turn to drugs or crime, and another survey found more than 30 studies that showed a correlation between religious participation and avoidance of such behaviour. Such studies bolstered a provision of the new law overhauling the U.S. welfare system that enabled the federal government for the first time to be able to give money to churches and other religious groups in order to provide services to the poor.

On the other side of the coin, a federal judge in St. Paul, Minn., struck down Medicare and Medicaid payments to Christian Science healers on the ground that they violated the constitutional separation of church and state. Earlier the U.S. Supreme Court had upheld a $1.5 million award against four Christian Scientists in the case of an 11-year-old Minnesota boy who had died in 1989 after being treated with prayer rather than medical care.

The Religious Freedom Restoration Act, passed in 1993 to tighten conditions under which government in the U.S. could restrict religious practice, was interpreted in different ways during 1996. In May an appeals court in St. Louis, Mo., said it enabled a church in New Hope, Minn., to keep money tithed by a couple in the year before they filed for bankruptcy. But in a June ruling involving a dispute over whether a church in Cumberland, Md., could raze property that the city wanted preserved, a Baltimore judge said the law was unconstitutional because it "usurped the Supreme Court’s authority to determine the scope and meaning of the First Amendment." In October the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to review the law in a case that involved its use by the archdiocese of San Antonio, Texas, against an ordinance in Boerne, Texas, that prevented a church in the city’s historic district from building an addition. Congress passed a law in 1996 establishing a $10 million fund to provide loans and grants to rebuild churches that were destroyed by arson; a number of African-American churches in the southern U.S. were destroyed by fire during the year.

In their issues dated April 8, the day after Easter, the three major U.S. weekly newsmagazines all featured cover stories on new scholarly theories about the historical Jesus, many of which cast doubt on the literal nature of his resurrection. Many reflected the work of the controversial Jesus Seminar, which itself was criticized by former Roman Catholic priest Luke Timothy Johnson in a volume titled The Real Jesus: The Misguided Quest for the Historical Jesus and the Truth of the Traditional Gospels. A survey conducted in March by the Barna Research Group found that 30% of "born-again" Christians did not believe that Jesus "came back to physical life after he was crucified."

Traditional concepts of the nature of hell were debated in January when the doctrine commission of the Church of England issued a report suggesting that it might more accurately be thought of as annihilation for nonbelievers rather than as a place of eternal torment. The Barna survey found that 31% of Americans saw hell as a place of physical torment while 37% said it represented a "state of permanent separation from the presence of God."

Ordination of homosexuals to the ministry and gay marriages drew varying responses from religious groups in 1996. The United Methodist Church voted at its quadrennial General Conference in Denver, Colo., in April to retain its position that the practice of homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teaching despite a petition from 15 bishops urging the church to ordain homosexuals. In a May ruling in Wilmington, Del., an Episcopal Church court dismissed heresy charges against retired bishop Walter Righter for having ordained a gay man as a deacon, ruling that a 1979 resolution by bishops against ordaining practicing homosexuals does not have the force of canon law. The General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), meeting in Albuquerque, N.M., in July, sent to presbyteries for a vote a measure that would require fidelity in marriage and chastity while single for all church officers and thus bar practicing homosexuals from ordination. Earlier, the Judicial Commission of the denomination’s Cincinnati (Ohio) Presbytery had nullified the ordination of an allegedly gay man. In November a church in Toledo, Ohio, that belonged to the Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches ordained a lesbian.

In March the Central Conference of American Rabbis, a Reform Jewish group, endorsed same-sex marriage as a civil right but stopped short of recommending that rabbis perform such ceremonies. In June the Unitarian-Universalist Association endorsed the legalization of such unions and voted to "proclaim the worth of marriage between any two committed persons."

Architect Philip Johnson celebrated his 90th birthday July 8 by unveiling a model for a $20 million cathedral in Dallas, Texas, for the Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches, a 3,000-member congregation composed primarily of homosexuals. He described the structure, which would be taller than Notre Dame Cathedral, as "the most important job of my life."

While some Christians debated doctrinal points, a major rift in the ranks of Orthodox Christianity threatened to explode over the affiliation of the Estonian Orthodox Church. The church was forced under the jurisdiction of the Russian Orthodox Church by the Soviet Union in 1945. When Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I approved its return to the jurisdiction of the patriarchate in Constantinople in February, Russian Orthodox Patriarch Aleksey II refused to recognize the change. The dispute was settled in May when Moscow and Constantinople agreed to allow parishes and priests in the Estonian church to decide their individual affiliations. (See Orthodox Church: Sidebar, below.) Meanwhile, Orthodox, Roman Catholic, and Protestant groups agreed to form a Christian Interconfessional Consultative Committee to promote cooperation and mutual understanding in the Commonwealth of Independent States and the Baltic countries.

A survey reported that church attendance in the U.S. was at the lowest level in two decades, with attendance dropping especially among seniors and baby boomers. Noting that these trends went against traditional patterns for people in their mid-40s to mid-60s, pollster George Barna cited the failure of churches to be relevant and turbulence within families as factors.

The $1 million Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion was awarded to Bill Bright, a Presbyterian layman who founded the Campus Crusade for Christ in 1951. The evangelical ministry, represented in 165 countries, was best known for its pamphlet The Four Spiritual Laws and a film on the life of Jesus that had been translated into more than 350 languages and shown in more than 200 countries. The 74-year-old Bright said he would use the money to establish a program to educate church leaders worldwide on fasting and prayer.

PROTESTANT CHURCHES

Anglican Communion

A church court dismissed heresy charges in May against the retired Episcopal bishop of Iowa, Walter C. Righter. In early 1995 Righter had been charged by 10 bishops under church canons for "teaching publicly and advisedly that a practicing homosexual may properly be ordained" and for violating his ordination vows. The court, however, held that neither the doctrine nor discipline of the Episcopal Church prohibited the ordination of a noncelibate homosexual person. The bishops who filed the charges said at a May news conference that they would not appeal the ruling. They did, however, plan to present a canonical change at the next general convention that would obligate all members of the clergy to "abstain from sexual relations outside Holy Matrimony."

Ellen F. Cooke, the former national church treasurer who admitted to embezzling $2.2 million in church funds, was sentenced to a five-year prison term by a U.S. District Court judge in Newark, N.J., in July. She began her sentence at a federal prison in Alderson, W.V., on August 26.

Bishop Winston Ndungane was installed in September as the successor to Desmond Tutu as archbishop of Cape Town, the highest office of the Anglican Church in southern Africa. Formerly bishop of Kimberley and Kuruman in the Northern Cape, Bishop Ndungane served a three-year prison term from 1963 to 1966 for his anti-apartheid activities as a student. In the Philippines, Bishop Idnacio Capuyan Soliba of the diocese of Northern Luzon was chosen the prime bishop of the Episcopal Church in the Philippines at the church’s June synod.

In late 1995 the Church in the Province of the West Indies became the 15th Anglican province to vote in favour of ordaining women to the priesthood. Others included the Anglican churches in Australia, Brazil, Burundi, Canada, England, Hong Kong and Macao, Ireland, Kenya, New Zealand, the Philippines, southern Africa, Uganda, the United States, and West Africa. Meanwhile, the General Synod of Japan’s Anglican church, Nippon Sei Ko Kai, rejected a proposal to ordain women priests after the bishops voted against it. Clergy and lay delegates at the synod had voted by a two-thirds majority in favour of ordination.

The assistant bishop of the Kirinyaga diocese in Kenya, Andrew Adano Tuye, was killed on July 27. Bishop Tuye died with senior government officials when the police helicopter they were traveling in crashed just outside Marsabit.

In February the Rev. Barbara Brown Taylor, rector of Grace-Calvary Church in Clarkesville, Ga., was named one of the 12 most effective preachers in the English-speaking world. The selections were made by researchers at Baylor University, Waco, Texas, in a poll of 1,500 other preachers and seminary professors. Taylor was the only woman and only Episcopalian on the list. David Sumner

Baptist Churches

During 1996 some prominent African-American church leaders in the United States joined with secular business interests to boost black spending power. Among those denominations urging their parishioners to buy the products of the Revelation Corp. of America were the National Baptist Convention, U.S.A., Inc. (7.5 million members), National Baptist Convention of America, Inc. (3 million), and the Progressive National Baptist Convention, Inc. (2.7 million). According to the plan, if substantial numbers of parishioners cooperated, a portion of the corporation’s profits would be funneled to local churches. The Revelation Corp. of America was a for-profit merchandising creation of John Lowery, a Memphis, Tenn., developer.

The Southern Baptist Convention (SBC), the largest Protestant denomination in the U.S., with 15,614,060 members, passed resolutions in its June meeting to boycott Disney enterprises because the Walt Disney Co. was providing health care benefits to companions of gay employees. The SBC also objected to Disney’s "hosting of homosexual theme nights at its parks."

At the same meeting, the SBC resolved to evangelize the Jews. The resolution criticized "an organized effort on the part of some either to deny that Jewish people need to come to their Messiah, Jesus, to be saved; or to claim, for whatever reason, that Christians have neither right nor obligation to proclaim the gospel to the Jewish people."

The president of the National Baptist Convention of America, Inc., the second largest African-American Baptist denomination, rejected the SBC’s recent apology for racism. Pres. E. Edward Jones told the 4,000 delegates at the denomination’s annual meeting in Dallas, Texas, "The civil rights struggle is still going on and we need more than an apology."

American Baptist Churches USA issued a call to prayer and concern for the churches being burned in the southern U.S. Grants and building loans were offered by the American Baptist Office of World Relief and the National Ministries’ Office of National Disaster Response.

At a recent gathering in Toulouse, France, the Baptist World Alliance was told that the organization was developing strategies to increase its membership significantly in predominantly Roman Catholic countries in Europe. Some 186 Baptist bodies worldwide were related to the Baptist World Alliance. Nilson Fanini, president of the Alliance, said, "Given our doctrinal differences, there will always be a need for Baptists to plant churches, even where there are many Catholic congregations." But Fanini cautioned that Baptists needed to exercise "courtesy and fellowship with those who have ploughed the ground before us and who believe in many Christian doctrines precious to Baptists." Norman R. De Puy

Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)

Actions taken during summer meetings of racial and ethnic constituencies, along with a churchwide response to help rebuild burned African-American churches, highlighted much of 1996 for the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). The North American denomination, based in Indianapolis, Ind., gave more than $60,000 to a special fund established by the National Council of Churches. In other action July assemblies of African-American and Hispanic Disciples released statements condemning the racism behind the arson fires. The fires were a sobering testimony "that racism continues to plague our land," said the Disciples’ general minister and president, Richard L. Hamm, in a July pastoral letter. He also announced that the 1997 General Assembly would examine racism in North America.

The assembly of Hispanic Disciples also criticized U.S. immigration laws, which it termed discriminatory. A first-time gathering of Asian-American Disciples and United Church of Christ members called for the removal of U.S. bases and personnel from Okinawa.

Other highlights included national television appearances by two Disciples of Christ congregations; The Easter program, "Resurrecting Hope," featured the 8,000-member Mississippi Boulevard Christian Church in Memphis, Tenn., and renowned Disciples preacher Fred Craddock spoke from historic Beargrass Christian Church in Louisville, Ky., for a Christmas special, "Awakening the Quest."

Churches of Christ

A growing emphasis on benevolence, especially among the urban poor, characterized the Churches of Christ in 1996. The Prestoncrest Church of Christ topped the list of 18 large metropolitan churches in Dallas, Texas, in the total amount of help given to the disadvantaged, in both time and money; Prestoncrest earmarked 31% of its budget of $1.6 million for this purpose.

Healing Hands International sent 23 shipments of medical aid, valued at $4 million, to 13 countries, including the Republic of Georgia, Guatemala, and Nigeria. Church of Christ Disaster Relief of Nashville, Tenn., and White’s Ferry Road Relief Ministry of Louisiana coordinated relief in the wake of Hurricane Fran in September.

E-mail and the Internet were used world-wide to contact mission points and develop teaching programs. National television ministries expanded, including Herald of Truth and "Key to the Kingdom." World Bible School correspondence courses, including a new edition in Arabic for the Muslim world, were used to convert thousands. Sunset International Bible Institute in Lubbock, Texas, conducted a seminar to consider ways to reach the Islamic world for Christ.

Let’s Start Talking, a student evangelistic ministry of English-language instruction using the Bible as text, marked its 15th year with 45 teams in 24 countries. The Russian Children’s Bible was published by Eastern European Mission. Children and youth camps were held in Ukraine and Russia.

Paid positions of ministry for women increased during the year. WINGS, a network ministry for women in need, using E-mail and telephone, was begun by the department of marriage and family therapy at Harding University, Searcy, Ark. A "Methusalah" conference for seniors emphasized their growing numbers and needs.

Church of Christ, Scientist

At its 101st annual meeting the church’s first Latin-American president, Juan Carlos Lavigne, sounded the theme of reaching out to address today’s growing demand for spirituality: "To the degree that God’s love becomes closer and more real to us, our capacity to love expands. It overflows the limits of individual affection, and we embrace our community and the world. . . . We begin to pray for others." Lavigne, a Christian Science practitioner and teacher from Argentina, conducted the June 3, 1996, meeting in Boston.

About 3,000 members listened to officers’ reports describing how the church was endeavouring to fulfill its mission as stated by founder Mary Baker Eddy--"to commemorate the word and works of our Master, which should reinstate primitive Christianity and its lost element of healing." In line with this, the church’s clerk reported "encouraging signs of our membership renewing their healing careers" and the increasing involvement of young people in Sunday school and in Wednesday testimony meetings. New members were welcomed from 42 countries, and a Christian Science church was established in Russia for the first time in almost 70 years.

Among the year’s other noteworthy developments, Eddy’s primary work, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, was being sold in bookstores throughout the United States, Canada, Australia, and the United Kingdom, and Eddy was inducted into the (U.S.) National Women’s Hall of Fame. TheChristian Science Monitor received its sixth Pulitzer Prize, and an unusually large number of church members from around the world contributed articles to the denomination’s religious magazines for the first time. In Boston the restoration of the Mother Church buildings reached the halfway point. Also during the year, the church launched three sites on the Internet: its own official home page, an electronic version of the Monitor, and a nondenominational Religious Freedom home page.

Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

The seventh largest church in the United States, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) in 1996 crossed a demographic Rubicon: for the first time, it had more members living outside than inside the U.S. By the year’s end the church had 10 million members in 156 nations and territories. The 50,000 full-time missionaries were recruiting approximately 300,000 new members per year. In addition to 4.8 million members in the U.S., there were 800,000 in Mexico, 600,000 in Brazil, 400,000 in Chile, 400,000 in the Philippines, 300,000 in Asia, and sizable numbers in Europe, Canada, and the South Pacific. An attempt was being made to universalize the LDS message and to draw attention to the Christian dimension of its theology.

Rex E. Lee, who had served for seven years as president of Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah, resigned for reasons of health (he died shortly thereafter) and was replaced in January 1996 by Merrill J. Bateman, formerly dean of business administration and management at the university and presiding bishop of the church. Simultaneously, Bateman was appointed a member of the First Council of Seventy, which marked the first time that a general authority of the church had served as president of the church university.

Despite his age--he was 86 in 1996--the church president, Gordon B. Hinckley, visited large congregations in many countries throughout the world. He dedicated new temples in San Diego, Calif.; Hong Kong; and American Fork, Utah. By the end of 1996 there were 49 working temples throughout the world, 6 under construction, and plans announced for 6 more. The First Presidency also announced its intention to build a new meeting hall north of Temple Square in downtown Salt Lake City, Utah, that would seat 25,000 people.

Jehovah’s Witnesses

During an age when families were disintegrating, a journalist described Jehovah’s Witnesses as persons who "live by Scriptures" and "stress family togetherness." To help persons live by the Bible, the Witnesses arranged a series of worldwide conventions beginning in 1996. During hundreds of seminars held in dozens of cities, the 192-page book The Secret of Family Happiness was released to the millions who attended. In less than a year, more than 14 million copies of this book, which explains how applying Bible principles can build strong families, had been published in 85 languages.

The emphasis on living by the Bible contributed to the 170% increase in the number of Witnesses since 1986. As of 1996 they numbered 5,199,895 in 232 countries. During 1995 the Witnesses spent more than one billion hours obeying Jesus’s command to spread his teachings to "people of all the nations." They distributed Bibles and Bible aids throughout the world and translated them into 303 languages. In 1995 the 32-page brochure Enjoy Life on Earth Forever was translated into 18 additional languages; this brought the total to 237 and made it the most widely translated publication of the Witnesses. During 1995 and 1996 their modern-language New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures was completed in Finnish and in Norwegian, and the New Testament of the Bible was translated into Chinese and four African languages, which brought the total to 29 languages. Thus, it was available in languages spoken by over 50% of the world’s population.

Lutheran Communion

The Council of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF), meeting in Geneva in September 1996, heard reports from its president, Gottfried Brakemeier of Brazil, and its general secretary, Ishmael Noko of Zimbabwe, on the present state of this international body of 122 member church organizations. A major item on the agenda was the ninth assembly of the LWF, to meet in July 1997 in Hong Kong, soon after control of that city reverted to China. After some earlier difficulties with the Chinese government, it seemed clear that the LWF would celebrate its 50th anniversary with its first assembly in Asia. Resolutions adopted by the council included approval of sanctions against Iraq and affirmation of the human rights of children. The council approved a process to further develop a joint declaration between the member churches of the LWF and the Roman Catholic Church on the doctrine of justification. One result of this declaration, to be considered for final official approval in 1998, would be the recognition that certain condemnations that were made in the 16th century between Lutherans and Roman Catholics would now be regarded as invalid.

In the Lutheran churches of Norway and Finland, the number of baptisms and confirmations increased. The constitutional separation of the Church of Sweden and the Swedish government continued; it was to be completed in 2000. Ecumenical progress between several Nordic and Baltic Lutheran churches and a number of Anglican churches in the U.K. moved forward.

Lutherans held international dialogues with the Orthodox churches and the Roman Catholic Church and a theological consultation with the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Regional dialogues between Lutherans and Mennonites in Germany and between Lutherans and Moravians in the U.S. took place. In India, Hong Kong, and Switzerland, women were selected for major leadership positions. Lutheran churches in Germany, Finland, and the U.S. discussed human sexuality as a potential church-dividing issue. In Germany Lutherans marked the 450th anniversary of the death of Martin Luther. In the U.S. bishops of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) and of the Episcopal Church in the USA held their first joint meeting. The ELCA was considering entering into full communion with the Episcopal Church and three Reformed churches in 1997, as well as accepting the "Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification" with the Roman Catholic Church. William G. Rusch

Methodist Churches

The quadrennial General Conference of the United Methodist Church was held in Denver, Colo., in April 1996. Delegates voted to retain the United Methodist Church’s Book of Discipline’s prohibition of the ordination of "self-avowed practicing homosexuals." The conference approved the establishing of a commission to create a plan for the possible union of four Methodist churches: the United Methodist, the African Methodist Episcopal, the African Methodist Episcopal Zion, and the Christian Methodist Episcopal Churches. The conference also voted to become part of the Consultation on Church Union covenanting community, which aimed to promote spiritual rather than structural unity.

The 17th World Methodist Conference took place in Rio de Janeiro in August. Some 2,700 delegates assembled from Methodist churches throughout the world. Under the broad theme "Holy Spirit: Giver of Life," the conference explored the nature and gifts of the Holy Spirit in the life of the church. During the conference the World Methodist Council, consisting of 500 elected representatives from the 71 member church organizations, held meetings. The council welcomed into membership the Church of South India and the Methodist Church of Paraguay, adopted a statement on "Wesleyan Essentials of Christian Faith," approved Methodist participation in ecumenical planning for the celebration of the 2,000th anniversary of the birth of Jesus Christ, received the report "The Word of Life: A Statement on Revelation and Faith" from the Joint Commission of the Roman Catholic Church and the World Methodist Conference, authorized the establishment, in cooperation with His Holiness the Ecumenical Patriarch, of an international dialogue with the Orthodox churches, and adopted a report of the Anglican-Methodist International Commission.

Other resolutions included a call to daily prayer at noon, whenever possible, asking for the guidance of the Holy Spirit in transforming the world away from violence and injustice, and a call to the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank to celebrate the millennium by canceling the debt of the less-developed countries. The council also adopted resolutions instructing the officers and the executive committee to review the structure and role of the council and its relation to the conference.

The 1996 World Methodist Peace Award was given to Bishop Stanley Mogoba, the presiding bishop of the Methodist Church of Southern Africa, for "his consistency in never advocating violence . . . in the struggle against apartheid; his courage in seeking reconciliation." John C.A. Barrett

Pentecostal Churches

During 1996 a revival at the Brownsville Assembly of God church in Pensacola, Fla., attracted news and visitors on a scale experienced only by the "Toronto Blessing" in 1995. By August the number of visitors totaled more than 700,000, while the "professions of faith" totaled 25,000 persons. By the end of the year, the Brownsville meetings were spawning similar revivals in other churches throughout the U.S.

In April the International Church of the Foursquare Gospel (founded by Aimee Semple McPherson) reelected John R. Holland to a third four-year term as president. The Church of God (Cleveland, Tenn.) in August elected Paul Walker as general overseer. For decades Walker had served as pastor of the largest congregation in the denomination, the Mount Paran Church of God in Atlanta, Ga. In July Pentecostals in the U.S. mourned the passing of C.M. Ward, the longtime ABC network radio preacher on the Assemblies of God national broadcast known as "Revivaltime." The new Pentecostal/Charismatic Churches of North America met in September in Memphis, Tenn., to "revisit" the "Miracle of Memphis," which brought black and white Pentecostals together in 1994.

There was discord between Pentecostals and Roman Catholics in Brazil in January, when the 3.5 million-member Universal Church of the Kingdom of God, led 200,000 members into the streets to protest verbal attacks by the government and a Catholic-owned television station. On the other hand, healing and harmony made news in April when 60,000 Italian Catholic charismatics met in Rimini, Italy, and pledged cooperation with the many Protestants, pentecostals, and charismatic observers in the sessions. Vinson Synan

Reformed, Presbyterian, and Congregational Churches

Western theology is no longer the universal form for understanding the Christian gospel, according to the international consultation on gospel and cultures organized by the World Alliance of Reformed Churches (WARC) in Indonesia in February 1996. The sense that a fundamental theological shift had taken place pervaded the consultation as it recognized that many issues look quite different from the perspectives of different cultures.

Another kind of universality came under attack in the WARC consultation on Reformed faith and economic justice, held in Geneva in May, when it protested against the exclusion of millions of people from a world economy that was supposed to meet their needs. The two consultations were part of an intense process of preparation for the 23rd WARC General Council, scheduled to take place in Debrecen, Hung., in August 1997. Its theme was to be "Break the Chains of Injustice."

Meeting in Detmold, Ger., in August, the WARC executive committee agreed on new guidelines for international dialogue. A first round of international Reformed-Pentecostal dialogue took place in Torre Pellice, Italy, in May.

At the Reformed Ecumenical Council (REC) meeting in Grand Rapids, Mich., in August, delegates from churches in Asia and Africa challenged the council to accept the implications of the gospel of Jesus Christ in a world of poverty and pain, where ecological crises, military dictatorships, proliferation of arms, and crushing international debts impoverish peoples’ lives. REC had been founded in opposition to WARC in 1946, but by 1996 the two organizations had moved closer together. The REC General Assembly reaffirmed its desire to establish a joint committee with WARC, with a view to promoting better understanding and fostering areas of cooperation.

Nine churches were admitted to WARC membership in 1996: the Congregational Federation of Australia, the Isua Krista Kohhran and the Reformed Presbyterian Church (Northeast India), the Gereja Toraja Mamasa (Indonesia), the Iglesia Presbiteriana Asociada Reformada (Mexico), the Ekalesia Kelisiano Tuvalu and the Ekalesia Niue (Pacific), the Reformed Presbyterian Church in Uganda, and the Korean Presbyterian Church in America (U.S.). By late 1996 WARC linked more than 70 million Christians in 208 churches in 102 countries. Paraic Reamonn

The Religious Society of Friends

After Quaker women from the economically deprived part of the world returned from the UN Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995, they urged Quakers throughout the world and in their home communities to make positive changes in the cultural attitudes and customs that continued to keep women second-class citizens in many countries. They reminded their audience that Friends’ Christian testimony on equality needed to be lived at home by means of participatory decision making.

The Friends World Committee for Consultation Asia/West Pacific Section held its triennial representatives meeting in July 1996 at Darwin, Australia. Delegates from the region were excited to see the variety of work and witness of Friends in this large section, particularly in Vietnam, Cambodia, and India.

In late August 57 leaders and pastors representing 19 African Quaker groups and 12 Mission and Service agencies working in Africa met to worship and to listen and learn from one another. They sought to further develop their strengths, one of which was a growing convergence between Mission and Service through a better recognition of their underlying unity. In focusing on the horrifying situation in Rwanda and Burundi, the group was moved by the presence of Friends from those countries, most of them now refugees. They told of the fear and hatred around them but also of the sheltering of God’s love in desperate circumstances. Some had lost close family members, others their homes. Although some church buildings had been destroyed, no one as of late 1996 had been killed in a Friends church. The meeting concluded with a call for better communication and united positive action, including the gathering and sharing of information on the growing arms trade within Africa. Thomas F. Taylor

Salvation Army

During 1996 the Salvation Army invested in its future strength and growth. The first meeting of the International Spiritual Life Commission took place in July. It reviewed methods by which Salvationists could further develop and maintain spiritual life. The International Forum on Youth was scheduled for 1997. Entitled "Breakthrough Generation," it was planned by Gen. Paul A. Rader to focus the energy, passion, and commitment of Salvation Army youth on the continuation of their mission.

Touring South Korea, Pakistan, India, Australia, and the U.S., General Rader strengthened the Army’s worldwide presence and forged new spiritual links. Setting an example of altruism, retired general Eva Burrows received the 1996 Living Legacy Award from the Woman’s International Center, San Diego, Calif.

Humanitarian care and uniting to overcome disaster remained vital to the Army’s concept of "active" Christianity. The murders of a teacher and pupils at Dunblane (Scot.) Primary School and of 35 people in Port Arthur, Tas., shocked the world. Salvationists joined other denominations in comforting and later helping to rebuild those communities. Salvation Army emergency relief teams provided assistance following an explosion in London’s Docklands, and after an earthquake in Yunnan province, China, the Army provided aid.

Royal Navy Lieut. Tony Brooks embarked on a 19,300-km (12,000-mi) charity bicycle ride from London to the Bering Straits, Siberia. His aim was to raise funds for a Salvation Army detoxification and rehabilitation unit. Epitomizing Salvationist philosophy, the journey was unofficially dubbed "Life Cycle."

Seventh-day Adventist Church

Meeting in Costa Rica, the Annual Council of the church’s executive committee voted in 1996 to restructure the Asia-Pacific division of the world church. Instead of one administrative unit stretching from Korea to Indonesia, the region would have two units, a northern one with headquarters near Seoul, S.Kor., and a southern one with headquarters near Manila. The restructuring reflected the growth of the church in the region, particularly in China. With these changes the worldwide Seventh-day Adventist Church comprised 12 divisions, with a membership (as of Dec. 31, 1995) of 8,812,555 from 208 countries.

Plans were laid for a four-year emphasis on the message and mission of the church among Adventists worldwide. For 1997 the theme would be "Experience the Joy of Salvation in Christ."

The year also was marked by the largest evangelistic outreach in the church’s history. A five-week program of meetings originating in Orlando, Fla., was transmitted via satellite to about 3,000 sites in North America, Central America, South America, and Europe. The meetings were made available in 12 languages to a combined audience of approximately 250,000.

Humanitarian services continued to be provided by ADRA, the Adventist Development and Relief Agency, which worked in 143 countries. The Annual Council in Costa Rica gave particular attention to the challenge presented by AIDS, stressing the need for education as well as help to victims.

A second round of consultations with representatives of the Lutheran World Federation was held near Toronto. Discussions focused on justification by faith, law, and the Sabbath. The church also engaged in official dialogue with the Worldwide Church of God. William G. Johnsson

Unitarian (Universalist) Churches

Vitality and growth continued to characterize North America’s Unitarian Universalist movement in 1996. Local church budgets climbed 63% from 1993 to 1996, membership was increasing at an annual rate of 4%, and the denomination’s presence on college campuses had quintupled since 1994.

The annual General Assembly of the Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations, June 20-26, 1996, drew more than 3,100 registrants to Indianapolis, Ind. Dedicated to the theme "The Future Is Now" and emphasizing youth issues, it attracted the largest gathering of young people in the denomination’s history.

Resolutions for study or final acceptance dealt with problems of economic injustices, environment, energy conservation, and racial and cultural diversity. Overwhelming support greeted resolutions in support of same-sex marriages and those expressing outrage over the violence inflicted upon African-American churches.

The Canadian Unitarian Council, concerned about the loss of the nation’s social safety net, passed a resolution on economic justice in a time of financial uncertainty. Its professionally produced video, "Sharing Our Vision," was shown on the Vision TV network nationally and was being used by congregations.

The (U.K.) General Assembly of the Unitarian and Free Christian Churches held its 1996 meetings in Glasgow, Scot. Resolutions on social issues included calling on the government to introduce tighter control over handguns by requiring their owners to submit to an annual test of psychological fitness, and to reform the national lottery in order to alleviate its perceived worst effects on society.

Around the world, Unitarian congregations were formed as far apart as Russia (Moscow, St. Petersburg) and Ushuaia, Arg., near the southern tip of South America. The 200th anniversary of the Unitarian Christian Church of Madras, India, was observed in 1995. John Nicholls Booth

The United Church of Canada

The United Church’s December 1995 pastoral letter on the economy continued to draw considerable response in 1996. Media interest in the letter generated both criticism and support for the church’s call to its members to find ways "to stop a growing war against the poor." Shifting spending priorities, the impact of costs related to the relocation of the national offices in 1995, and lower-than-anticipated revenues combined to result in organizational restructuring and staff layoffs in 1996. The total amount of money raised for all purposes in United Church congregations was Can$311,855,276. Of this, Can$30,291,561, less than 10%, was directed to the national funds of the church. The United Church remained Canada’s largest Protestant denomination, with some three million known members and adherents in 1996.

Like other institutions within Canadian society, the United Church continued to deal with sensitive legal issues, including those related to claims by former residents of a now-closed Indian residential school. Clergy employment disputes and claims of sexual harassment were the predominant cases that came before both the church and civil courts in 1996. For the first time in many years, the church had a surplus of clergy. Unfortunately, this was happening at a time when the financial viability of some congregations to support full-time or multiple ministry was in question and when the number of congregations was in gradual decline. A churchwide study was beginning to assess this development.

The denomination’s new hymnal, Voices United, was published in April to widespread acclaim. Also during the year, the Ethnic Ministries Council met for the first time and began its program of supporting ethnic ministries throughout the church.

United Church of Christ

In 1996 the United Church of Christ celebrated the 150th anniversary of the American Missionary Association, a historic church mission agency that engaged in prophetic service and action with African-Americans, Puerto Ricans, Native Americans, Appalachian whites, and people moving to the United States from many nations and cultures. The AMA founded churches, schools, and hospitals and was involved in community development and publishing.

Work to reshape the structure of the church in the U.S. intensified during the year. This new structure, to be implemented in 1999, was to include three ministry units--Local Church, Justice and Witness, and Wider Church--along with an Office of General Minister and President. This would be the first comprehensive national reshaping since the formation of the 1.5 million-member church in 1957.

Critical theological deliberation continued within the church, sparked to a significant degree by the ongoing Seasons of Theological Reflection and the introduction in 1995 of The New Century Hymnal. The editors of the hymnal stated that "one of the great gifts to our time is the spirit . . . calling us to affirm the fullness of God, the goodness of creation, and the value of every person. The search for language and metaphor to express that breadth and richness marks this book." Spirited deliberations about the theological appropriateness of the language and metaphors used in the hymnal were ongoing.

The church strengthened its efforts to implement its commitment to be "a multiracial, multicultural church," remained active in the public realm primarily through support of poor and exploited people throughout the world, and furthered its involvement in a number of ecumenical relationships. Continued attention was given to evangelism and stewardship concerns in light of continued membership losses and reduced financial support.